Cargando…

Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach

The adoption of supplementary nutrition information, i.e., front-of-pack labeling (FOPL), on pre-packed food products is advocated as a tool to improve the consumers' knowledge of the nutrient content or the nutritional quality of foods, but also to drive products reformulation by the food indu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Martini, Daniela, Marangoni, Franca, Banterle, Alessandro, Donini, Lorenzo Maria, Riccardi, Gabriele, Poli, Andrea, Pellegrini, Nicoletta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9437431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061903
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.963592
_version_ 1784781609456631808
author Martini, Daniela
Marangoni, Franca
Banterle, Alessandro
Donini, Lorenzo Maria
Riccardi, Gabriele
Poli, Andrea
Pellegrini, Nicoletta
author_facet Martini, Daniela
Marangoni, Franca
Banterle, Alessandro
Donini, Lorenzo Maria
Riccardi, Gabriele
Poli, Andrea
Pellegrini, Nicoletta
author_sort Martini, Daniela
collection PubMed
description The adoption of supplementary nutrition information, i.e., front-of-pack labeling (FOPL), on pre-packed food products is advocated as a tool to improve the consumers' knowledge of the nutrient content or the nutritional quality of foods, but also to drive products reformulation by the food industry. Ultimately, FOPL should help people to select foods in order to compose an overall balanced diet, which is essential for health. However, the extent to which the different FOPL systems proposed in the European Union (EU) (interpretative or informative) are effectively able to convey the information useful to improve both food choices and dietary habits of the consumers is still under debate and needs to be analyzed in detail. The use of 3 FOPL schemes proposed within the EU (Nutri-Score, Keyhole and NutrInform Battery) to compare products available on the Italian market within different food categories, highlights some critical issues: (1) different FOPL provide to consumers different kinds of information; (2) systems based on similar theoretical approaches can provide conflicting information; (3) the algorithms on which interpretative FOPL are based can give the same summary information for products differing in nutrient composition, impact on the overall dietary balance and therefore on the health of people with different characteristics, physiological/pathological conditions, and nutritional requirements; (4) on the other hand, products with similar nutrient composition can obtain different interpretative FOPL; (5) informative systems are generally more complex and require greater both attention and knowledge from the consumer; (6) FOPL based on 100 g of product overlook the role of portion (and frequency of consumption) in determining the nutrient intake without informing on the contribution of a single food to the overall diet; (7) FOPL based on scoring systems could promote the reformulation of selected products, especially with a composition very close to the threshold limits; (8) for the portion-based informative FOPL systems, the incentive for reformulation could essentially involve the reduction of portion size. Finally, the importance of nutritional education interventions, which are required to encourage the use by consumers of informative FOPL systems, cannot be neglected to improve the quality of diets regardless of the FOPL used.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9437431
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-94374312022-09-03 Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach Martini, Daniela Marangoni, Franca Banterle, Alessandro Donini, Lorenzo Maria Riccardi, Gabriele Poli, Andrea Pellegrini, Nicoletta Front Nutr Nutrition The adoption of supplementary nutrition information, i.e., front-of-pack labeling (FOPL), on pre-packed food products is advocated as a tool to improve the consumers' knowledge of the nutrient content or the nutritional quality of foods, but also to drive products reformulation by the food industry. Ultimately, FOPL should help people to select foods in order to compose an overall balanced diet, which is essential for health. However, the extent to which the different FOPL systems proposed in the European Union (EU) (interpretative or informative) are effectively able to convey the information useful to improve both food choices and dietary habits of the consumers is still under debate and needs to be analyzed in detail. The use of 3 FOPL schemes proposed within the EU (Nutri-Score, Keyhole and NutrInform Battery) to compare products available on the Italian market within different food categories, highlights some critical issues: (1) different FOPL provide to consumers different kinds of information; (2) systems based on similar theoretical approaches can provide conflicting information; (3) the algorithms on which interpretative FOPL are based can give the same summary information for products differing in nutrient composition, impact on the overall dietary balance and therefore on the health of people with different characteristics, physiological/pathological conditions, and nutritional requirements; (4) on the other hand, products with similar nutrient composition can obtain different interpretative FOPL; (5) informative systems are generally more complex and require greater both attention and knowledge from the consumer; (6) FOPL based on 100 g of product overlook the role of portion (and frequency of consumption) in determining the nutrient intake without informing on the contribution of a single food to the overall diet; (7) FOPL based on scoring systems could promote the reformulation of selected products, especially with a composition very close to the threshold limits; (8) for the portion-based informative FOPL systems, the incentive for reformulation could essentially involve the reduction of portion size. Finally, the importance of nutritional education interventions, which are required to encourage the use by consumers of informative FOPL systems, cannot be neglected to improve the quality of diets regardless of the FOPL used. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9437431/ /pubmed/36061903 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.963592 Text en Copyright © 2022 Martini, Marangoni, Banterle, Donini, Riccardi, Poli and Pellegrini. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Nutrition
Martini, Daniela
Marangoni, Franca
Banterle, Alessandro
Donini, Lorenzo Maria
Riccardi, Gabriele
Poli, Andrea
Pellegrini, Nicoletta
Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title_full Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title_fullStr Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title_short Relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: An attempt of an analytical approach
title_sort relationship between front-of-pack labeling and nutritional characteristics of food products: an attempt of an analytical approach
topic Nutrition
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9437431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061903
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.963592
work_keys_str_mv AT martinidaniela relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT marangonifranca relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT banterlealessandro relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT doninilorenzomaria relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT riccardigabriele relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT poliandrea relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach
AT pellegrininicoletta relationshipbetweenfrontofpacklabelingandnutritionalcharacteristicsoffoodproductsanattemptofananalyticalapproach